M7 Issues

The M2/M4/M6 all have coat hooks and they are great when sun is shining in your face when taking a nap. hang your coat and instant shade.

dc700 wrote:Was there any thought to putting the door mid car ?
It always seemed like a good idea to me

The doors on the M-series cars are called quarter doors because they divide the car in 21 foot quarters so no one has to walk more than 20 feet to the nearest exit. Center doors (without end doors) would increase the distance to the doors and could delay passenger departures.

I ran into a Conductor for MNR yesterday at the Cracker Barrel near Fish Kill. We started talking because he noticed that I was wearing my LIRR jacket. We got to talking about the M-7's and he asked me what kind of problems we were having with them. I told him that as far as I was concerned, the bathrooms continue to be the major problem on the LIRR. Sometimes the ASI doesn't want to recognize train numbers so I usually have to use the back-up route option to make it work. Also, 12-car M-7's are still not a very common site on the property. Every once in a while I get one, but I have been told that they have a tendency to severly tax the sub-stations along the route. He told me that this has already happened on MNR with some blown sub-stations. In fact, I noticed that when ever I have a 12-car consist of M-7s, the amount of volts from the third rail is actually down to the high 600 volt as opposed to the typical 740+ volts that it usually registers. He also mentioned the problems that they are having with the ASI, in that it actually for some reason mentions LIRR stops instead of MNR routes. I'm not sure if thats a GPS issue or a computer file issue, but I never had the ASI do something like that while I work with them. I'm sure that Bombardier will get it right, eventually!

They also do quite well in the snow. This past Sunday night, our M-7's did just fine in the 3 inches + of snow out in Ronkonkoma while the M-1/ M-3's that we brought east were arcing all over the place causing a slower draw of power for the engineer, and constant flickering of the lights. The door problem will go away once more crews get accustomed to operating the doors on the M-7's. They just don't close as fast as the M-1/M-3's do and can make one very impatient. I been there and done that. It was very nice to speak to a fellow conductor from our sister RR. It gave me a good impression of what goes on in their RR compared to our experiences.

The ASI will work by getting its location from the GPS receiever. If there is no signal, like in GCT, it will use "dead reckoning" which means it uses the odometer to determine the location based on the mileage. In that scenario, if someone put in an LIRR route on an MNR train, it would make the LIRR announcements if the software sounds were present. Eventually, the railroads plan to have wireless networking installed on each car so that the software can be updated remotely and faults will be transmitted enroute. That way if a train needs water in a toilet, it can be routed to the proper yard track for service.

technology is wonderfull, right track or not , right now we can't even get fluid for window washers

we can't even get fluid for window washers

LOL We had the same situation on the LIRR. Then, all of a sudden, cases of Auto Barn windshield washer fluid showed up.
One would have thought that BBD would have an "official" windshield washer fluid...the use of any other fluid voiding some warranty, of course.

<i>One would have thought that BBD would have an "official" windshield washer fluid...</i>

Check the specs on the blinker fluid, it's probbably special

FYI The M-7s already transmit certain faults to Central Control on the LIRR. I would imagine the same is being done at MetroNorth.
A fault can have certain reporting attributes attached to it, ranging from just logging it in memory (without alerting anyone), to alerting the train crew on the CDPs, to transmitting the fault to headquarters.
Any fault can have its reporting attributes changed.

N340SG wrote:FYI The M-7s already transmit certain faults to Central Control on the LIRR. I would imagine the same is being done at MetroNorth.

Metro-North does not have that capability yet. They are still negotiating the cellular data service contract. As Dutch noted, he would be happy if he could just get washer fluid, never mind "E.T. phone home".

N340SG wrote:FYI The M-7s already transmit certain faults to Central Control on the LIRR. I would imagine the same is being done at MetroNorth.
A fault can have certain reporting attributes attached to it, ranging from just logging it in memory (without alerting anyone), to alerting the train crew on the CDPs, to transmitting the fault to headquarters.
Any fault can have its reporting attributes changed.

I'm curious: do you know how the actual data is transmitted? Since Penn Central said cellular, do you know anything about which provider, or equipment used?

No decision has yet been made about what technology to use, much less the equipment used and the provider of the service.

Originally, the cars were to use CDPD cellular data technology. The cellular companies decided that this wasn't something they wanted to continue to provide, and it's no longer available to new accounts. MNR is studying various other technologies and will decide sometime this year how to proceed.

Meanwhile, data is dumped at terminals.

Jim

I'm sure its something like Verizon's Nationalaccess or whatever, high speed data access. I would assume for the LIRR its via Verizon Wireless, due to the fact that it works in the east river tunnels.

Btw, cell phones is one of my hobbies too so thats why I'm asking.

Actually, no, I don't know what is used. I was told by a knowledgable Master Mechanic that some faults are transmitted. I don't usually like to trust third hand information, but I do trust this fella. He's one of our few bright spots left in M of E management over here.

There is an entry for one of the M-7 cars for defect in CDPD, so I guess that is in fact what is being used by LIRR, at least for now. They must have opened an account before the deadline.

MN Jim wrote:No decision has yet been made about what technology to use, much less the equipment used and the provider of the service.

Originally, the cars were to use CDPD cellular data technology. The cellular companies decided that this wasn't something they wanted to continue to provide, and it's no longer available to new accounts. MNR is studying various other technologies and will decide sometime this year how to proceed.

Meanwhile, data is dumped at terminals.

Jim

Sounds like something ATCS could handle

see www.atcsmon.com for more info